EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was originally published in the Montreal Gazette on April 1, 2007:
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By Dave Stubbs
MONTREAL – They were at Gordie Howe’s Bell Centre table on Thursday night from the lobster martini until well past le temple au chocolat, a queue that stretched for three hours and at least a few thousand calories.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was originally published in the Montreal Gazette on March 26, 2012, on the occasion of what would be Gordie Howe's last trip to Montreal:
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By Dave Stubbs
MONTREAL -- The autograph of Detroit Red Wings icon Gordie Howe -- Gordon, by his longhand -- is one of the most familiar and cherished in old-time hockey, in a dead heat with those of Montreal Canadiens' Jean Béliveau and the late Maurice Richard, fellow Hall of Famers.

Alex Ovechkin shoots the puck more than anyone, and it's not close. Since he entered the NHL in 2005-06, the Washington Capitals star and three-time MVP has 3,830 shots -- over a thousand more than his closest competitor.

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. -- There was no stunning upset this time for Canadian Milos Raonic.
A day after a stunning quarter-final win over Spain's Rafael Nadal, Raonic dropped a 7-5, 6-4 semifinal decision to Swiss star Roger Federer at the BNP Paribas Open.

SASKATOON -- Wayne Gretzky figures there is no photograph fans ask him to sign more often than the one of him as a smiling preteen beside his idol Gordie Howe, who is playfully hooking a hockey stick around the future Great One's neck.